Hadassah, provider of 'Regulatory-Ready' pluripotent clinical-grade stem cell banks

• Main Authors: Shelly E Tannenbaum, Orna Singer, Yaniv Gil, Yael Berman-Zaken, Nili Ilouz, Hanita Khaner, Miriam Haimov, Benjamin E Reubinoff
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
• Series: Stem Cell Research
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1873506119303009

The Hadassah hESC Research Center's aim is to be a supplier of clinical and research-grade human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. In 2012, we derived the first three entirely GMP-compliant and xeno-free, fully-characterised, feeder-dependent (human umbilical cord) hESC lines developed under cleanroom conditions. In 2018, we established four new GMP and xeno-free, feeder-independent MCB hESCs under GMP conditions using commercially available reagents, media and matrix. All cell lines were derived under Israeli Ministry of Health's National Ethics Committee for Genetic Research in Humans and the ethical considerations that guided the development of the hESCs strictly followed Israeli law. Hadassah has provided its clinical-grade hESC lines to commercial entities of which two are already in clinical trials, establishing Hadassah as a key provider of clinical-grade hESC lines. Keywords: Transplantation therapy, Xeno-free, Clinical-grade hESC lines, Disease-affected hESC lines, Biosafety testing, QC testing, Certificate of analysis